If you care absolutely nothing about how incredibly well my son did in the AAU Regional Karate Championships in Albany, or are not a parent and don’t understand how bragging about our children is hard-wired into our circuitry,stop reading here.

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News is trickling in from Albany, and most of it is great! Bay View Karate competitors are regularly winning medals in their divisions, and as of 2:00 today (Sunday) some of the adults hadn’t even competed yet. My 18-year old son competed in what is typically one of the most competitive divisions in any tournament (16-18 year old males), because of both skill level and number of competitors. Despite that, my son won gold medals in both long and short weapons, and a silver medal in kata (forms). Did I mention that was MY son? Congratulations to the Bay View Karate team for a terrific showing in a very difficult tournament!

Next Saturday my daughter, many of her neighborhood friends, and several sporting adults will gather for our second annual Kids’ Clean-up Crusade.

Last year, after noticing all the garbage thrown along Hatch Road, I suggested to my youngest daughter that we spend an afternoon picking up trash. Then we decided to invite the neighbors kids along. Before we knew it we had a group of about a dozen kids and adults, and after about an hour and a half had collected 8 bags of garbage.

You can see by the photo how much fun the kids had.

This year we hope to have even more helpers and collect even more garbage. My daughter made up some fliers, we’ve distributed them to the neighborhood, and she’s going to hand some out on her bus tomorrow.

It would be great if even more neighborhoods got into the act this year. Pull together your own Kids’ Clean-up Crusade team; invite all the neighborhood kids to take part. Give your team a cool name, provide garbage bags and rubber gloves (or have everyone wear garden gloves), pick a street or two and fill some bags!

Let me know if you’re planning to take part; comment on this blog or send me an email at missyblog@email.com. And don’t forget to take photos! I’ll post them on the blog.

Earth Day 2008 is Tuesday. Do you remember the first Earth Day? (It’s OK; the nice thing about blogs is that you can answer with some anonymity, so you don’t have to admit your age.)

As for me, I was in the sixth grade, and I remember being very excited about Earth Day. I was also quite the radical. I remember my friends and I thought about taking bag loads of trash and dumping them on the lawn of the town hall. Why we would do that, I can’t recall. Whether we actually did it, I can’t recall. Probably blocked out that memory of our audacious civil resistance.

Of course, back in the early 1970s (the time of the first oil crisis) it seemed that everyone was much more concerned with the environment. It’s nice to see that Earth Day is still around, and that environmental concerns are addressed at the grass roots level at least once a year.

I know that there are more 70s radicals like me out there. It’s time for us to pass the torch onto our kids and get them more interested in helping protect our environment.

Next weekend my daughter and her friends will gather to pick up trash in our neighborhood. We call it the Kids’ Clean-up Crusade, and I encourage your neighborhood to join in the effort.I’ll post more details about what I’m proposing a bit later today.

In much the same vein as my last post, here’s a great example of how the Webster and Penfield communities can work together as neighbors.

On Saturday April 26, the towns of Penfield and Webster join forces to hold a Household Hazardous Waste Collection. The event will take place from 8 a.m. to noon at the Penfield Department of Public Works, 1607 Jackson Road.

Items that will be accepted include oil based and latex paint, wood stain and preservatives, automotive fluids, pesticides, household cleaners and more.

Appointments are required for this event. To make an appointment, and get more details about acceptable materials, call either 872-1443 (Webster residents), or 340-8710 (Penfield residents). Then join your neighbors and do something good for the environment!

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I’d like to wish good luck to the 21 Bay View Karate competitors who are traveling to Albany this weekend for the weekend-long Amateur Athletic Union Region 1 Regional Karate Championships. It’s the largest team Bay View has ever fielded for the Regionals, and most of these competitors — who range from white belt youths to black belt adults — will return to Albany in July for the National Championships.

My son is among the competitors, so be forewarned … if he wins, I’ll be bragging.

Hi everybody, and thanks for coming along as I begin this new adventure as a Webster community blogger. I’m really looking forward to joining Rod here; I’ve been one of his regular readers and I think we’re going to make a great team!

Right off the bat, though, you probably ought to know something about me that I didn’t include in my bio. I actually live in Penfield.

Now, please don’t hold that against me. My home off of Hatch Road is in the very northernmost reaches of Penfield; climb over my back yard fence and you’re in Webster. If not for the fact that my lot stretches 100 feet in the wrong direction, I’d be a Webster resident, and would enjoy the convenience of not having to bag my leaves every fall.

However, despite living in Penfield, I don’t feel like a … Penfieldian.My kids have attended Webster schools since we moved here 11 years ago. We consider “downtown” Webster our hometown. We enjoy the free performances at the gazebo, admire the annual sand sculpture at Webster Village Days, and drag our lawn chairs and blankets to town every 4th of July to see the fireworks.

Where I live, the Penfield/Webster boundary is blurred, as it should be. I don’t believe that we should identify ourselves as a resident of one particular town or another, but as part of a neighborhood. And a true neighborhood transcends boundaries. For sure, my suburban neighborhood is much different from the small-town streets of my youth, but it is a neighborhood nonetheless.

My neighborhood has schools, farm markets, and a library. It has a park with a playground, and deer that visit my back yard before sun-up. There are new families, toddlers, teenagers and retirees. Every summer evening couples stroll along the street and an ice-cream truck makes his musical rounds.

But my neighborhood also has car dealerships, gas stations and strip malls, because that’s what a suburban neighborhood is like. And if something happens — like a fire in a local business, or the death of a child — it affects all of us, no matter which side of the fence we live on. Because this is not Penfield or Webster. This is our neighborhood.

So most of the time I’ll have my eye planted firmly on Webster, and I’ll tell you what I think about what’s going on. But if some bit of interesting information from Penfield sneaks into the blog from time to time, well, please forgive me.

With all the negative things going on worldwide, sometimes, it’s good to sit back and find time to enjoy the humor one might find in everyday life.

From the Xerox Active Health Care Management update for April, the newsletter makes note that April is National Humor Month, among other items April is noted for, such as the beginning of spring, baseball season and school concerts and plays. National Humor Month began in 1976, and was started by Larry Wilde, Director of the Carmel Institute of Humor; it’s purpose, make people aware of the healthful benefits of laughter. Wilde chose April because taxes are due on the 15th, which may lead to higher stress levels.

Some laughter I’d like to share occurred during a recent staff meeting. As end of meeting was approaching, we began talking about some childhood TV shows and it brought much laughter. One person commented on participating in “Bowling for Dollars”; another mentioned being on the program, “Buy a Dog, Sell a Hog”; and still a 3rd talked about the days before the Lyell Theatre became an adult theatre. My claim to fame was being on the Soupy Sales show, a long time ago. We had a good laugh about these memories.

Another major topic of laughter from our staff meeting was the infamous “Can of Worms”, and how confusing it was that there were 2 routes identified as 47 North, and both routes took you to different areas of Rochester. Being new to Rochester in 1976, I had a few days of confusion on both 47 Norths; and I’m sure there were many others. Thankfully, the Can of Worms no longer exists, and those 47 Norths became 390 and 590. Happy trails.

April 4, 2008, marked the 40th anniversary of the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., in Memphis, TN. Do you remember what you were doing and how you reacted upon hearing of his death?

I was 13, living in Detroit, MI, when Dr. King was killed. I don’t remember where I was when I first heard the news; but, I do remember the sadness displayed by my parents and other, older relatives that evening. I also recall the black radio stations began playing gospel music throughout the night and the next day.

As I think back to the days and weeks after Dr. King’s death, one event stands out: while retrieving a softball from a school playground, a carload of young white kids drove by and shouted a derogatory remark at me. I couldn’t do anything but ignore them, but, I’ll never forget their comment.

From the Democrat and Chronicle At a Glance Section: 32nd annual Webster Community Arts Day, Saturday, April 5, 2008, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m., Schroeder High School. No cost for this event; activities include: arts, photography, music and literary entries, entertainment, talent show, games and crafts; and plants, baked items, and breakfast and lunch foods can be purchased.

Missy Rosenberry, a graduate of Cornell University, spent many of her post-college years in radio, advertising and public relations. After taking most of the 1990s off to have her three children, she is now a full-time teaching assistant for the Webster school district, and a part-time karate instructor. She and husband Jack have lived in the Webster/Penfield area with the kids for 11 years. She'd like to use her blog to help others learn more about the Webster community.

Roderick Spratling is a husband and father of two who has lived in the community for over 18 years. Born and raised in Detroit, Spratling is a 1976 graduate of Michigan State University who earned a master’s degree in Manufacturing Management & Leadership from RIT in 2004. He’s a Purchasing Consultant in Global Purchasing for Xerox Corp., and he enjoys softball, bowling, photography, and traveling.